Take 1 - "Carrie" By Stephen King.....

Lex:
Hello there!

I'm so glad you're reading! I gotta say when Lee suggested we start this I wasn't aware of how long that list was.... Now that I know and understand how great this project of ours can be, or am beginning to understand, I'm happy you're joining us!

We started the Gilmore Girls Reading list with Carrie by Stephen King. For those unfamiliar with the novel it was publish in '74 and was later adapted into a film ('76). They've just released another film adaptation which could probably account for the difficulty we had in finding the novel. I haven't seen the new version, so you'll have to let me know how it is. :)

Lee and I searched up and down and eventually ended up with ebooks. Just as a side note, we hate ebooks. This lead to some discouragement and lead to a longer start than anticipated, but we got it done!!


Well.....

I actually liked Carrie. I really did. It was a very intriguing story and I think it definitely got me to feel all the emotions I was supposed to. I'm not sure how developed Carrie as a character was, but then I don't feel that the novel was really about her so I'm not sure that her development is entirely necessary. I know, I know, "but the novel is named for her." Yeah, yeah. I'm not convinced.

The novel felt like a big, red, screaming warning. I couldn't help but think of the school shootings and the theater, work-place, home shootings going on/that happened. No, perhaps those children/adults weren't brainwashed or conditioned in the way that Carrie was, but what if they were suffering in a similar manner? See, if you haven't read Carrie you have to understand that it's written in fragments of evidence and stories and recollections of Carrie's Prom Night. Those fragments created this wonderful tension. Thoughts, stories, and articles aren't finished. They leave you hanging and wondering how these pieces fit together. It's frustrating(!!), but that tension is perfect as it allows you to go through the same emotions Carrie's going through. She's struggling and has all this pent up anger.

Back to the Prom Night though: The novel started talking about it before you're even aware it's talking about that night. It plants an egg without you noticing and little by little you're realizing how BIG that egg really was and is becoming.

I equated that "egg" to Carrie's telekinetic abilities. She was slowly rediscovering them as the novel went on. Oh, how difficult it was to read her self-discovery be part of her self-destruction. It was like she couldn't understand what she was learning or accept it. She was so unhappy with staying in line with her mother and still so unhappy with stepping out on her own.

I think the warning covers just about everything. Extremes. Family-being too involved with that leaves you alone and sometimes brainwashed (ha), love-it's complicated and doesn't necessarily happen because you're family. Sometimes we allow other things to triumph over family. Like, Religion! Let me insert another note here. I don't think King was warning against ALL religion or even the Christian Religion. I think he made that clear with his effort to completely separate and exclude Carrie and her mother's form of worship and religion from anything else. I mean, they stepped away from a Baptist church and we all know the stereotypes that go with that. It's hard to ignore the effort made to show just how EXTREME Carrie's mother was.

Power of the mind. We can convince ourselves of anything. We can make that scary movie even worse. We can fool ourselves into thinking we're prepared for that test or to face our fears. POWER. I think that's what it came down to. Carrie's classmates took her power by belittling and humiliating her. She was an easy target- even the "not so cool" kids could be cool-er than Carrie. She was the one that gave them power. Carrie gave her mother and her mother's religion power. By blocking her childhood memories and submitting to her mother's will, Carrie fed her mother power as well. Carrie's abilities fed her mother's religious power. She was evil. They took her power without realizing they were giving or rather awakening some power inside of Carrie, too.

When we think about interactions with others and with the world, it really is just all about power. power. power. did you come out funnier, smarter, faster than that other person?  Were you kinder? What connections do you have that could benefit them? How can you at least help that person find the power within themselves? Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps I'm waaaay off, but that's what I felt.

With the articles and the studies that were written and published... they were using the story and Carrie, again, for their own power in their "world." It felt like... a government conspiracy book with the studying and especially with that little girl at the end. She's the next generation. They could do to her what was done to Carrie or heck, even study her, but it won't change what's done to people "like them." They'll still be used and taken advantage of. They'll continue to provide and never receive. They'll do it and do it until they break and in turn break everything in their path. And, I don't really mean people with powers like Carrie or that girl in the end. I mostly mean, those weaker or those perceived as weaker. We use people. It's terrible.

That's at least the doom and gloom part of what I received from this novel. :) Haha, let's hope Lee can cheer you up or at least leave you WANTING to read the novel.

Lee:
 I love blogging, so I'm more than excited to have Lex join me in being a blogger nerd. Mostly I love the way Lex thinks about things, it's always so insightful and completely different. So I'm excited you guys get to see that.
Quick note I have to agree on, We REALLY HATE EBOOKS!
That being said, I can move on.

"Carrie" was most definitely not the easiest read for me, excerpts from other people, the future, the present, the past, all within the same page, kept my mind bouncing along like a ping pong ball. But as the story developed, it seemed to get easier. I can't be sure if this was the writing, or my mind finally adjusting to the different view points.However, I definitely agree with Lex on a few points, mostly that I'm not sure that the novel was really about Carrie. Even when you are reading as Carrie, you still get the feeling that you're looking in at someone narrating the whole scene.
I think "Carrie" was meant to show extreme takes on certain ideals, such as religion, sexism, and bullying. The sad part was a lot of these are a very regular part of our lives now. Especially in bullying, we see it in the news, the internet, and furthermore we see the conclusions to bullying like, gun violence and suicide. Carrie is like this ticking bomb.... everyone, I do mean everyone, uses her as a scapegoat. She is this one target for everyone to make fun of, or abused in the case of her mother... each time it gets so much easier for her to reason that these people should die. When she is shown actual kindness, she believes it to be folly.
Carrie was often made fun of because of her crazy religious mother, that she also believed in God/Jesus, her weight, and by the fact that she wasn't incredibly beautiful. But something kept bothering me about all of this, obviously it was the references to why she was bullied but something else too; I think it was this idea that if you haven't had sex, you're a prude. If you've had sex, or been out with a boy, you are now a whore. These whole double standards of what is to be a woman and how incredibly difficult it can.Through the entire book I felt like there were these conflicting ideas, but maybe that was the point.

At the end of the novel, the courts, news media, science experts, all were trying to question if Carrie was always dangerous? If her ability was somehow this deadly weapon in female form, if so should it be rid of if shown in other women? Lex made a point, I really want to expand and twist a little bit. The very end changes our whole perspective, we're introduced to a little girl who seems to have these abilities, that the little girl's grandmother also had these strange abilities, and that the little girl herself was somehow even similar to Carrie as a little girl, but much happier. That's all we learn of her, that she's different but growing, beautiful, and very happy.
It seemed to make the point,  everything comes down to how you are treated in life. Carrie is routinely treated horrible and even when moments of kindness are shown to her, the damage has already been done, she believes the worst in all of them. So much so, you can't even be upset that she blows up the town. For a whole moment.... you understand.